Unknown Viewpoints on Sacred, Undividable Somalia

One point that kept me busy for long is the overwhelming unawareness of Modern Somalis about their country’s Sacredness and the absolutely exquisite value of Somalia and the Somali soil itself for many ancient peoples and civilizations.

My interpretation of the disadvantageous fact evolves around the lack of Egyptology and Classical Studies in the modern state of Somalia; if Somali students of History, Archeology, Literature, History of Religions, and Philosophy had the opportunity to study mythical Egyptian Hieroglyphic texts, such as the Narration of the Shipwrecked, and Pharaonic Historical Annals, like Queen Hatshepsut’s Exhibition to Punt, and Classical Literature from Strabo and Agatharchides to the unknown author of the Periplus of the Red Sea, they would certainly realize the capital significance of the Sacred Land of Somalia (also called Punt and Azania in different historical periods).

All this does not mean that the Modern Somalis do not love the currently divided and strife-stricken fatherland for which many poems have been composed full in metaphors, allegories and symbols. Somali love, affection, and devotion for Somalia is an undeniable fact that was so impressively and epigrammatically described by Dr. Ahmed Artan Hanghee, Dean of the Institute of Arts under the Somali Academy of Science and Arts, as follows: "Somali poets talk in the abstract. You'll find one describing the beauty of a camel, but what he really means is Somali liberty and independence. Or the subject of the poem might be a horse, but he's really describing the woman he loves. The waves of the Indian Ocean become the waves of decolonization and the freeing of Africa". (http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198806/a.nation.of.bards.htm)

Great Hope for United and Pacified Somalia

Certainly the subject is vast, and I will soon come up with several articles, revealing the importance of Somalia for ancient peoples, priests, authors, travelers and philosophers; however, the phenomenon has not ended, and through various forms, ancient traditions have survived down to our days, spread among many people who still understand the sublime importance of Somalia.

This is essential at the times of strife and division, and I find it as a good reason for the Somalis to hope, and console themselves when terrible images and disastrous news flood us on daily basis. Even more, I would say the Somali Diaspora, instead of engaging in unnecessary conventional political lobbying, further discord, split and schism, should take the initiative to launch an Association "Worldwide Friends of Somalia", and thus mobilize great pro-Somali resources that remain unexploited and unengaged.

Geographic Determinism

Somalia’s Sacredness emanates from what we call today ‘Geographic Determinism’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_determinism), which is a vast academic field greatly developed in the Antiquity, but little known in our times.

In fact, leading scholars are still trying to decode and interpret ancient texts that would give us the right insightful to this key issue for ancient connoisseurs and erudite priests and scholars in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome and elsewhere.

Anthropomorphic maps

One reflection of the Geographic Determinism that has been recomposed and reinstated in our times is the sector of anthropomorphic maps (indicatively: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism; http://geography.about.com/b/2005/06/01/anthropomorphic-map-of-israel.htm; and http://www.holylandmap.net/anthro/enisrael.htm).

Anthropomorphic maps are generated by configuring the body of a god or goddess over the geographic area to be mapped. The name for each part of that body becomes the name for the area or feature under that part.

Israel Cohen and Somalia’s Sacred Position

Immediately after the publication of my article entitled ‘4000 Years of Illustrious History of Somalia’ (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/58344), I received a mail from the part of a multi-talented and erudite researcher, Mr. Israel Cohen. His areas of research and professional activities oscillate from actuarial analysis, and technical writing to computer programming/analysis, and software engineering (computer aided design, avionics, electrical engineering).

Mr. Israel Cohen learned about the concept of anthropomorphic maps and about the maps of Napi and his wife in Alberta, Canada from the anthropologist Stan Knowlton, and the late, distinguished linguist Dan Moonhawk Alford (About the leading linguist: http://sacaaa.org, http://seedopenu.org, http://www.visionaryaudiovideo.com/vis-cart-bio.asp?id=131, http://www.enformy.com/dma-eulogy.htm, and http://www.fdavidpeat.com/forums/indigenous/alford.htm).

Mr. Israel Cohen’s particular areas of interest in Linguistics are:

1. The formation of idioms (narrowly defined as phrases whose meaning cannot be determined by ordinary analysis of the words in them) primarily by transliteration of foreign terms and secondarily by the translation of foreign idioms, and

2. The pervasive tendency of homonyms in a language to combine the same semantically unrelated concepts that are combined to form (near) homonyms in other languages.

A Website dedicated to Anthropomorphic Maps

As Mr. Israel Cohen concentrated his efforts on Europe, Africa and Asia, he established an anthropomorphic map, by matching the body-part terms with toponyms that represent areas that stretch from the Ukraine to Yemen and from Morocco to Somalia. To further propagate the concept and the application, he initiated the website http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/BPMaps, exclusively specialized in BPMaps (Body Part Maps).

For Mr. Israel Cohen’s interpretational effort of Sacred Geography, Somalia "had been the left leg on an anthropomorphic map of Aphrodite, seen in left-profile with her head at Morocco and her waist at Misr/Egypt".

Sacred Geography in Islam

For Muslims, who may be shocked from this approach, I want to remind how deeply embedded the Islamic Sacred Geography was at the times of Al Khwarizmi and Ibn Al Arabi (http://web.uni-frankfurt.de/fb13/ign/astronomy_in_baghdad/bibliography.html and http://www.sacredsites.com/africa/morocco/morocco.html).

I add here an enlightening excerpt from Prof. David King’s ‘Reflections on some new studies on applied science in Islamic societies (8th-19th centuries)’ (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-119627483.html).

"On Jan 31, 2004, an American convert to Islam, with a Jewish father and Christian mother, was interviewed by CNN about the hajj. He mentioned that the Ka'bah, the physical centre of the world of Islam, was in itself nothing more than bricks and mortar. The interested reader will find a lot more about the significance of the layout of the rectangular base of the Ka'bah--based on medieval texts written by Muslims--in the first and fourth of the books mentioned above. When I was teaching at New York University in the early 1980s, I had a doctoral student begin a dissertation--alas never finished--on medieval texts dealing with the Ka'bah. The history of the Ka'bah still has to be written, but it is just one amongst many topics that demands our attention.

The task of the orientalist, or rather, an orientalist with my kind of interests in the practical interaction between Islam and science over many centuries, is to pose questions like the following and seek their answers. Why is the sacred direction in Islam called qiblah, from the root q-b-l? Why is the term salat for the Islamic prayer ritual written with a waw? Is it significant that the major axis of the rectangular base of the Ka'bah is aligned towards the rising-point of the star Canopus over the horizon of Makkah, and the minor axis is aligned to the solar rising at the summer solstice? Muslims centuries ago certainly thought it was. How have Muslims determined the qiblah and the prayer-times over the centuries? Why do medieval mosques face all sorts of curious directions, when any medieval astronomer could have advised on a qiblah in accord with contemporaneous geographical knowledge? What is the origin and significance of the distinctive definition of the beginning of the time of the 'asr prayer in terms of the increase of the gnomon shadow over its midday minimum by an amount equal to the length of the gnomon"?

Now, I will publish Mr. Israel Cohen’s letter integrally; I want to draw your attention to its poetical ending. I did not edit the text, and I will not comment, as it consists in a holistic approach very clearly expressed. I will soon come up with details about Somalia’s sublime importance and sacredness in the Antiquity.

In the light of these texts, these approaches, these viewpoints, and these considerations, today’s Somalis have to understand that, despite all evil schemes and all evildoings perpetrated by evil enemies, like the criminal rulers of Abyssinia, and pathetic renegades, like the pseudo-regime of Hargeysa, nothing from today’s destruction and chaos can or will ultimately have impact on the diachronic prevalence of Undividable Somalia.

Mr. Israel Cohen’s Letter

Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis,

Saw your article entitled 4000 Years of Illustrious History of Somalia. To the extent that etymologies of the toponyms described below are correct, they indicate that Somalia had been the left leg on an anthropomorphic map of Aphrodite, seen in left-profile with her head at Morocco and her waist at Misr/Egypt.

Many years ago, Ethiopia was the name of an area that stretched all the way from West Africa bordering on the Ethiopian Sea (now the South Atlantic ocean) to the southern part of the Red Sea. It may have represented the body of Cassiopia. Abyssinia (compare Hebrew kHaBaSH) reverses to form the name of Queen Sheba.

I learned about anthropomorphic maps from the linguist Dan Moonhawk Alford (deceased) and the anthropologist Stan Knowlton. They described the maps of Napi, the creator of the Blackfoot Indians (aka The Old Man) and his wife (The Old Woman) in Alberta, Canada. I "found" similar maps of a male body (Hermes ?) in the Middle East and a female body (Aphrodite) in north Africa.

Anthropomorphic Maps

Anthropomorphic maps were generated by configuring the body of a god or goddess over the area to be mapped. The name of each part of that body became the name of the area under that part. This produced a scale 1:1 map-without-paper on which each placename automatically indicated its approximate location and direction with respect to every other place on the same map whose name was produced in this way.

You are cordially invited to join the BPMaps discussion group on this topic, a very quiet list that averages about 2 messages per month. The URL is:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/BPMaps/

The Challenge: To produce computer software that will find additional body-part maps elsewhere in the world. Available inputs:
(1) geographic databases with ancient place names (e.g., the Perseus project).
(2) body-part names on Swadesh lists. Unfortunately, the navel is not included.

Attributes of Anthropomorphic Maps

(1) The navel is the center of the body, the center of the map, and usually the center of the map's language community.

(2) Place names (toponyms) may be reversed, metathesized, misspelled or euphemized for various reasons:

(a) The same part in the same language exists on another map of a different body. Cranium > Mo[n]rocco because Ukraine existed? Aphrodite is looking backwards over her right shoulder. She is bent at her waist (Misr/Mitzraim = MoSNaiM).

(b) The left (sinister) part is altered in names for left-right pairs (arms, legs, eyes, ears). DoFeN = side reversed to Nafud in north Arabia. SHvK = thigh with a T-sound for the letter shin = TvK reversed to Kuwait. BeReKH = knee metathesized to Bahrain.

(c) Names that represent taboo body parts or funcitons are reversed or euphemized:
Semitic PoS (female pudenda) reverses to yam SooF = sea of reeds (Red Sea).
Mare Rubrum (Latin for Red
CaNa3an (3 = aiyin with a G-sound as in 3aZa = Gaza) is a reversal of Greek gyneco-.
Sinai = "snatch" is spelled SiNi in Hebrew. The aleph=CHS is intentionally missing.
ZaYiN = weapon (a euphemism for his male member) is in Sinai as the desert of Zin.

(3) Names may be loan-translated due to conquest or language-change.

(a) Roxolania (Semitic Ro[chs]SH = head) => Rus *( Ro@SH) => Ukraine (Greek kranion)
* Caused by a change in the sound of the aleph from CHS to a glottal stop.

(b) Libya (Semitic LeB = heart) => Cyrenaica (Latin cor = heart, compare coronary) => Libya

(4) Rivers and bodies of water may be named after bodily excretions:

(a) Milk River in Alberta.
(b) Red Sea (Latin Mare Rubrum) is Aphrodite's menstruation.
(c) Gulf of Aqaba (Semitic QaVaH = digestion/defecation)

(5) Internal body parts may represent subdivisions of external parts.

(a) Arabic Misr / Hebrew Mitzraim (< TSaR = narrow) = waist (Hebrew MoSNaim). Egypt (< Greek hepato- = liver). Goshen (with a T-sound shin < Semitic QiTN = bean) = bean-shaped kidney. Goshen exported Arabic QuTN = cotton => Latin Gossypium (English gossamer = cotton-like)

(b) Atlas mountains < atlas = first cervical vertebra that supports the cranium.

(6) Islands near a body's hands may be named for weapons.

(a) Trinacria = trident (< Gk tri = three + Semitic NaKaR = to pierce) => Sicily (< VL *sicila < Latin secula = sickle to harvest wheat; compare Semitic SaKiN = knife). The trident was in Neptune / Poseidon's right hand (Italy, like Anatolia < N'TiLas yad = arm being washed by the seas).

(b) Greece = reversal of Semitic S'RoG = (weighted) net, held in his left hand.

(c) Crete = reversal of targe = small shield (compare English target) also in his left hand.

Aphrodite

The map of Aphrodite is in north Africa. Her face [PaNim] was lost during the 3rd Punic war. The rest of her is still there. She is looking backwards over her right shoulder, so her CRaniuM is reversed at Morocco. It still has a Fez. Her chin [SaNTir] is reversed at Tunisia. The Atlas (anatomy: first cervical vertebra) mountains support her head. Her hair [Sa3aRa] is the Sahara desert. Her backbone [amood SHiDRa] is the Gulf of Sidra. Her heart [LeB] is Libya. Her breast [SHaD] is Chad. Her narrow [TZaR] waist is Misr / Mitzraim. Her liver (Greek hepato-) is Egypt. Cotton (Arabic QuTN, Latin Gossypium) was exported from Goshen, her [QiTNit = bean]-shaped kidney. Her side [TZaD] is Sudan. Her other side [DoFeN] is Dafur. Her left [SMoL] leg is Somalia.

[NeGeV] is a reversal of vagina and may be related to [NeKeV] = aperture. [CaNa3aN] was her Latin cunnus (and a reversal of Greek gyneco-). Its name changed to [YiSRa@eL] at the time when [Ya3aKoV] / Jacob "fought with god and men" [Gen 32:29]. This represented a change in sovereignty from Africa to Asia minor. [ YiSRa@eL] is that body part that gives [@oSHeR] = delight to [@eL] = god when it is [YaSHaR] = straight, upright. Changing Jacob's name from [Ya3aKoV] = "ankle; curved, bent" to [YiSRa@eL] = "straight, upright + god" is a well-known Hebrew pun.

Hermes

The body-part map of Hermes is in Asia minor. kHermes [kHoR = hole + MoSnaim = waist] lived at Mt. kHermon before he moved Mt. Olympus (Greek omphalos = navel). Later his name was reversed to become Latin Mercury. Compare Amerigo Vespucci and America.

His head [Ro@SH] was at Roxolania/Rus, south of Belarus. Its name changed to the Ukraine (Gk kranion = cranium, *not *Slavic u kraina = to/at the border). His throat [GaRGeret] is Georgia. His left shoulder [KaSaF] is the Caspian sea. His right shoulder [@aTZiL] was Euxinus, now the Black Sea. His right arm/hand is being washed [NaTiLat] at Anatolia. His upper arm (Sanskrit irma) at Armenia, biceps (Greek pontiki = muscle) at Pontus, elbow [KiFooF yaD] at Cappadocia, wrist [m'FaReK] at Phrygia, and thumb [BoHeN] at Bithynia were in Anatolia. His heart (Greek cardia) became Kurdistan. His narrow [TZaR] waist is Syria and his navel (Sanskrit nabhila) reverses to LeBaNon.

South of Lebanon is the male member (Greek phallus) named Philistina. See [CaNa3aN / YiSRa@eL] above. His buttocks [YeReKH] is Iraq. His thigh [shin-vav-kuf] sounded like TvK and reversed to Kuwait. His knee [BeReKH] is partially reversed in Bahrain. His right [Y'MiN] foot is at Yemen.

These two bodies are connected, literally, at Sinai (with an aleph that is not written in Hebrew, compare "snatch", a reversal of [K'NiSah] = entrance), a part of her body that contains the desert of Zin, his "zaiyin".

Aphrodite as an Anthropomorphic Map

The goddess we call Aphrodite
Is not just an old Grecian deity.
The Phoenicians did make
Her a map. It's not fake.
Her body is cartograffiti.

The Punic war destroyed her face,
The Romans left nary a trace.
But her hair is still there,
In Sahara, that's where.
And her chin's a Tunisian place.

Mt. Atlas is her first verTebra.
Her backbone is now Gulf of Sidra.
Her heart is in Libya,
Her left leg, Somalia.
Her breast is in Chad wearing no bra.

The Greeks called her liver Egypt, an'
Her kidney was Biblical Goshen.
She's bent at her waist,
Now Misr-ably placed.
The Red Sea was her menstruation.

As a kid I did think the Red Sea
Was an English map typo: lost E,
From Reed Sea in Hebrew.
But that could not be true,
Mare Rubrum 'twas Latin, B.C.

Aphrodite with Hermes did sin,
We know this is true 'cause within
Her "snatch" we call Sinai
His "zaiyin" does still lie.
It's known as the desert of Zin.

Best regards,
Israel Cohen

To learn more:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-119627483.html; http://web.uni-frankfurt.de/fb13/ign/astronomy_in_baghdad/bibliography.html; http://sacredgeography.blogspot.com; http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/greece/ancient_greek_sacred_geography.html; http://www.sacredsites.com/resources/sacred_geometry.html; http://kataragama.org/research/cosmography.htm; http://www.philipcoppens.com/karnak.html; http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/pdf/2001-12.pdf; and http://www.mythography.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1716&st=40

Note
Picture: Queen Europe as an anthropomorphic map by Heinrich Buenting,
Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae. Praha 1592, Knihovna Národního musea 29B8